Connecticut western news., 1887-05-04
LIFE IN CAIRO.
Seductive Influences of a So-
 journ in Egypt.
Daily Life and Picturesque Scenes in An
 Oriental City.

Dta1Ay hi1o dAu 41OGuIoSquo OOouo3 III 0A
 Oriental City.
 A correspondent of the Louisville Courier. Journal thus seductively de scribes the sweetness of duing nothing in modern Cairo: When one is fairly in Egypt, floating softly on the undulating tide of life in Cairo, one wonders why onc's time and adjectives were wasted on Europe; why people are ever com tented to stop short of the desert.
 Cairo, with it's strange history and stranger streets, it's mosques and bazaars, is a charming study. All na- tions meet here; all languages and all customs obtain here, and of wonderful costumes aad merchandise there is no end. In this sweetest of winter climates life seems too short to be in a hurry; indeed, it is not worth living unless one can loitcr. The donkeys and cats alone would make lifelong study; when they lift up their voices either singly or in concert, the very stars in heaven quake, and the moon turns pale and trembles. And then there arc the people who own the cats and who tide the donkeys-severa decades might be devoted to them. An Egyptian woman is an object when on foot; but when she mounts donkey she is vision To begin with, she rides on both sides of the animal, and when her curious black drapery bags out in the wind, and the donkey disappears, save that his big cars and small legs twinkle occasionally into view, sensa- tions fade, words fail, and one feels the nccd of rest and nourishment. Dodging under camels; stepping over dogs and ohildren; pushing aside donkeys and people, one finds narrow alley leading off the Mouskee, and seeming to wind it's tortuous way in strange places. One or two smaller alleys turn off; then be- fore you rises a low archway. The shadow is very deep; you are evidently uhNSA AOuSC1 ouO Accu WIuSl, 1lkC that in a narrow mountain defile, nearly takes your hat off. A wide gate stands open; one moment takes you through, past the group of guardian Arabs; you turn corner, and before you opens the beautiful garden of tho hotel.
 Sycamores and acacias bend and droop over the flower beds, roses and heur de lys wave in the wind; great bamboos, more than forty feet high, sway with a long, slow motion; the red hibiscus busns like fire in the green gloom; the shadowy palms whisper softly to the fresh wind coming in from the desert; the little wag-tails hop about the path; the doves mourn their hearts out in the tree-tops; the cloudlcss, rainless sky spreads blue above, and the sun comes down between the leaves in thousand golden streams. People who know how to live in Egypt come here, and life goes on as it should in the land of the lotus. Excursions are made easily; sights are seen intelligently; there is quiet talk and peaceful thought here in the fragrant garden. An artist paints with his Arab and Fellah models grouped in the sunshine on the piazza; further on an Englishman sits translating an Arab book still further down the vine-draped vista some Arab sheiks are bargaining with knowing Psychologists for antiques -scarabs and ugly little gods-strange old rings and Coptic cmbroiderios.
 Down in the garden the artists wife and an American woman drum softly on darabukkah, while on the path in front of them Fcllah girl kneels, trying faithfully to teach them native song. Strange and wild it is, with an unac- countable measure that can only be caught by car, not learned by method. Near by a conjuror does his marvellous tricks, his mysterious call of "galla, gal!a," now and then rising above the barbaric song. An East Indian merchant, with his rich stuffs spread over chairs and benches, his gold and silver wares gilt ting in the sunlight, chaffers persuasive |y with group of people, who try vain ly to look sufficiently indifferent tc make him lower his prices. The noon day sun is blazing overhead; the birds are still, and the roses droop little; but sitting quietly in the shade it is not so bad, and the desert wind coming over the garden of a neighboring sheik, has crisp, cool touch to it. Later the scene dissolves, and the company go thcil different ways, to meet again after din ner under the broad fall of moonli ght. Then cigars and talk of the days pings stories of odd adventures, stories of 'olo times," when they first came down int| , Egypt, and so the pleasant days drif by.